September 06, 2006
What Now? An iPod Phone? No VoIP?
Russell Shaw provides an informative two reasons why an iPod phone may not make a dent in the market. Question is, is there a market for it? I'd originally had no intention to get myself an iPod. However, my father recently opened up a bank account under certain conditions and received an iPod Nano for it. He gifted it to me, not having much use for it. While I don't generally listen to it during the day, I actually go to bed listening to it. And I'm addicted enough that I'm contemplating getting a widescreen video iPod, rumoured to be out soon. (I'm a TV/ film junkie, to the point of actually writing about it.) But an iPod phone?
Not sure I care. I have my beautiful Palm Treo 650, which can also display video content. Except that uploading content to it seems a chore compared with the ease with which iTunes lets me transfer audio to my iPod. (I used iTunes long before I got that iPod.) What's more, I can do mobile VoIP on my Treo (albeit with great effort to finally find some functioning solutions). Will an iPod phone be able to do that? Why would I change from the device that I already have (except for its bulk, I love my Treo).
Then there's the question of which cellular providers will offer coverage for the device. Apple has never been particularly fond of third parties taking any of their profit margin. It's the reason why there's a huge PC market and aftermarket and not so much of one for Macs. Apple has been very innovative, but they've also made mistakes. And while Russell doesn't go so far as to say that, I think that Apple would be making a mistake trying for this market. A better offering would be Wi-Fi Skype VoIP iPod (VoIPod) with video-calling, which could potentially wipe up the market with competitors' bottoms.
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